Your world with Dr. Beatrice Hyppolite
Hello,
I am Dr. Marie Beatrice Hyppolite. I hold a doctorate in Health Science with emphasis on Global Health and master’s degree in social work. I have over 14 years of experience in the field of health and human services.
This podcast is primarily focused on mental health and the quality-of-life elements that affect it such as divorce, death, domestic violence, trauma, toxic relationships, and single parenthood to name a few. It is no secret that mental health challenges continue to profoundly impact modern society although not enough discussion is given due to stigma. Research has shown an increase of 25 % in mental health crises after COVID-19. It is important to have honest, uncomfortable conversations about mental health while being supportive. Although we are interdependent, change begins with the individual, hence “your world.”
I welcome you to join me on my journey and look forward to your responses.
Your world with Dr. Beatrice Hyppolite
Empowering Lives Through Occupation
Occupational therapy transforms lives through meaningful engagement—a concept Dr. Gus Schlegel embodies with remarkable passion. Drawing from decades of experience and a personal library of over 700 professional texts, Dr. Schlegel reveals how OT extends far beyond clinical treatment into a philosophy that shapes every aspect of life.
The conversation takes us through the fascinating world of doctoral capstone projects, where students develop original research or programs that address real-world needs. Dr. Schlegel's role as a coordinator keeps him at the forefront of emerging knowledge while allowing him to witness the next generation's innovative approaches to practice.
Professional development emerges as a cornerstone of excellence in this field. From specialized certifications in hand therapy to becoming a certified aging in place practitioner, occupational therapists can develop expertise while maintaining their foundational identity. Dr. Schlegel emphasizes how membership in professional organizations creates communities where practitioners share knowledge, discuss best practices, and earn continuing education credits.
Perhaps most compelling is his discussion of cultural humility in practice. Rather than assuming competence in every culture, Dr. Schlegel advocates for an approach that values openness, understanding, and incorporation of each client's unique background into their care plan. The therapeutic use of self—adapting one's approach to meet clients where they are—creates powerful connections that facilitate meaningful change.
Community resources play a vital role in extending OT's impact. Innovative programs like "Wheel it Forward" provide medical equipment to those in need, while memory cafés offer safe spaces where individuals with dementia and their caregivers can engage socially without judgment. These resources, combined with interdisciplinary collaboration, create networks of support that enhance quality of life.
Dr. Schlegel leaves us with a profound definition that captures the essence of his profession: "The goal of occupational therapy is to help individuals participate in activities that give their life meaning and purpose." For those inspired to learn more, he recommends contacting the American Occupational Therapy Association or exploring accredited programs through ACOTE.
Hello everyone. I'm Dr Beatrice Ippolit and this is your World. My next question how do you stay current with best practices and research in occupational therapy?
Speaker 2:So that's a really good question and because I'm the doctoral capstone coordinator, I'm involved in helping the students develop their research.
Speaker 1:I know that you mentioned the word capstone before. Can you explain to? My viewers what capstone means.
Speaker 2:You're right, we did throw that term around before. So a capstone project is a culminating project, that it can be for a master's degree. So master's students say they engage in capstones. And it's really that capstone, it's that stone that it's almost like a keystone that holds the whole structure together. It's a culminating, tangible delivery, and so it could be some type of project for the doctoral capstone projects. It's individual, original research. It could be some type of program development and program evaluation. It could be some advocacy project. It could be some real research where, and so our students learn research skills so they understand qualitative and quantitative inquiry, and so crunching numbers on the computer, numbers on the computer SPSS is one of those programs and then once they go through that process of engaging in the research or program development, they present it, and so there's this dissemination at the end and that is kind of the culmination of everything. So they do a poster presentation and they submit their manuscript.
Speaker 1:It's a lot of work.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of work.
Speaker 1:My first project was doing the master program at Adelphi University. It's fun, so it's rewarded that you feel great about yourself, that you have accomplished something major. But it can be nerve-wracking too it can, it can definitely, yeah.
Speaker 2:so that's how I stay on top of my knowledge, is I? I'm? I'm right there with the students learning about and some you know I've learned so much from my students too, because they'll come up with something that that really tickled them or interested them and they want to learn more about it. They're educating me too, because I can't possibly stay up to date on every single aspect of what occupational therapy does and is, but they help me do that, they really do. There's also professional organizations. I can't reinforce enough how important it is to be a member of your national organization. I know in social work there's a national organization. There are state-level associations we have in the metropolitan area. We have the Metropolitan Education Council for Occupational Therapy, the Metropolitan Education Council for Occupational Therapy, where field work coordinators and capstone coordinators we meet on a regular basis to review best practices and new knowledge that's been developed. So reading journals, having discussions we have a journal club. I'm also a member of the New York State Occupational Therapy Association, the Connecticut.
Speaker 1:Occupational Therapy.
Speaker 2:Association, where I'm on the board. And so we have communities of practice where there's one for mental health we just had a mental health where we talked about um cbt cognitive behavioral therapy on on thursday and um. We have a home care community of practice, which now in also includes perspective on aging, so there's a huge audience there. There's school-based community of practice where like-minded people just get together and have a chat. There's there's a sense of community and and there's also a learning objective. It counts towards education units too which you need for licensure.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, yeah, okay, so it seemed that you were on top of your game, yeah plus, plus I I, so I happen to love books, textbooks and uh I I think I don't know if sheila mentioned this, but but, um, yeah, she she has complained, but then she she likes that the library is there.
Speaker 2:About five years ago, at the start of when COVID started, it was harder to get to a library and access to text, so I started to troll eBay and different sites, thrift books and on Amazon to find textbooks for cheaper. And build your own library. We have at home now we have a library that has over 700. We have over 700 occupational therapy and research texts.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's a real passion and that helps me learn too. There's never a time that I'm not looking. Right now, I'm learning about transformative learning.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:It's understood that you have past experiences and your understanding of those experiences helps shape how you're going to approach new learning.
Speaker 1:It's how your past is going to shape your future. Yep, you know.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, and I know that because a book came in two days ago on that that I had ordered, and sometimes it takes a month for the book to come, and that's okay because I got it really cheap, so I'm willing to wait, but then it adds to the library Okay, oh, and that's okay because I got it really cheap, so I'm willing to wait, but then it adds to the library and um, okay, oh, that's, that's amazing over 700 books several of the 700 books okay, okay, I'll come check that out you can come and look.
Speaker 2:You can use the library anytime oh, definitely, definitely I'll do so people now.
Speaker 2:So at the different universities, if someone's giving away a text or they don't have a use for me, tell Gus because he'll take it. So I have in my car right now. I have three boxes, three boxes of textbooks, and some of them are really good textbooks that I'll go through and most of them I'll then send on. So I've sent books to Haiti. There's a program in Puerto Rico that I'm going to be sending textbooks to, so I'll clean them and then I'll pass them on.
Speaker 1:I attended York College for undergrad I don't recall exactly you know during what time of the year on the social workflow they always have a pile of books. They will just put in the hallway and so students will come and just select. So, whatever that and those books, you know they were heavy so and I didn't have a car at that time but will just, you know, take some of them and hide them places because they were behind another book.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:So sometimes I'll go to the library and I had my special spot where I will hide those books and the next time I come, so I'll just take one or two, because when you don't have a car and those books are heavy and you already have your own books coming to school, so there is not that many of them you can carry. So, no, no, no, it's very important. Sometimes people say, oh, those books. Some people believe books can be old.
Speaker 2:Me, I don't think books can be old no, and and that's funny because, um, what I've gotten into now a little bit too is is tracking the changes between. This might sound really odd, but tracking the changes between different editions, so you know some. So the books are periodically updated and I still find value in um a first edition.
Speaker 2:Because that's especially if if I'm looking to um, if you're looking at seminal articles that that um introduced a really important idea of those articles from a journal. They might be 20 or 30 years old and that person might have also written a chapter in a text and that textbook might be 20 year old. I think my oldest book, my oldest text, is 60 years old such a treasure. But they might be still. You know, for the time it was relevant and it was the only research we had, you know, in that particular area, and so that becomes really important and I think that they'll retain their value and they'll be treasured for, you know, for generations to come.
Speaker 1:Because one thing that I used to do because I didn't have that much textbooks are really expensive. If the school asks for us to buy the third version or edition or the fifth edition, I'll buy the third one instead of the fifth one or the fourth one, because it will cost me less.
Speaker 2:Yes, right, exactly.
Speaker 1:And during the semester, whomever had the new edition or the one that was required by the school when we got to that chapter, I'll just ask to borrow the book or go to the library, write whatever that my book doesn't have.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because financially I was really tight so I had to find a way to have my books. But to make things work for me, Because sometimes it's not really that much of a difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they might be adding a new chapter, and that's the way that I think sometimes too. And so if the new text costs 90 or $100 and I can get the old text, which might be five years old, for maybe 30 on EB, I might get that edition. And then, like you said, I'll wait and a lot of the publishers'll have, um, like summer sales, like right now. One of the big um publishing houses has a 25 off sale if you buy two, two books or more. Yeah, and so I'll wait for that. I have my list, I'll put it together and I'll send it out. Then five books come at one time and then I'm really in trouble. But yeah, and so then I'll have those up-to-date editions of the book.
Speaker 1:Of the book.
Speaker 2:And then I can either give the old one away or keep it as an archive.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, okay. So what opportunities are there for professional development and continuing education in this field?
Speaker 2:Because occupational therapists are present as a profession in so many different areas. We work in pediatrics, we work with neonates there's been research done on fetal interactions, so before a child is born geriatrics, mental health, the condition, you name it really. So in all of those different areas there are specialties that emerge, and one of the ones that really comes up is in hand therapy emerge, and one of the ones that really comes up is in hand therapy. Just the hand is so complex that you actually have to study and really specialize to be able to treat just the hand. And so there's we call them certified hands therapists, chts for short, and so that specialization is open to physical therapists and occupational therapists. So that's one way that you can gain skill is by specialty certifications.
Speaker 2:There's pediatric, different interventions like sensory processing. There's specialty areas, and they might be promoted by national organizations that focus just on on on that particular aspect. Or it could be our national organization, the american occupational therapy association. They they have specialty exams that you can take to really become specialized in a particular area, and so there's one for home modification, for example. One of the things that we did during COVID again was we became certified aging in place practitioners, and so we know about Sheila and I know about building codes, we know about universal design. We can make recommendations on how to make a home accessible. Different types of equipment that you can bring. Bring in like having a mirror that tilts so someone in a wheelchair can can still groom themselves, having sinks that can raise and lower down, different grab bars in particular areas, ramps or or like the stair glides yeah, exactly, so we know about that.
Speaker 2:So that's something that that we studied for. We took a week-long course, um, and it was all online, right, you can do it in person too, but, um, and, and then you sit for an exam. We have our, our CHES certification, so we are community health educators, so we have that certification. It was a three hour, 300 question, multiple choice exam and there's also micro credentialing too. So if you, which is part of we need a certain amount of continuing education hours to maintain our licensure, so, um, national organizations, our state organization, um, you get credit hours for that and and so you can develop an area of specialty.
Speaker 2:I, I'm a certified dementia practitioner, so I went through that training and got that certification. So, really, it really depends on each individual clinician and you have to have a desire to do that and someone a mentor long ago to do that, and someone a mentor long ago. She told me she's one of our dear friends from Ireland who is also an occupational therapist. I told her this was in 1998, I said I was working for the company where she was my supervisor and I said I'm going out on my own, I'm going to work for the Board of Ed in New York and for some early intervention organizations, and I'm going to be a pediatric therapist and she said, gus, and that's wonderful, but always remember that you're an occupational therapist and don't ever forget that.
Speaker 2:And I really didn't know how to take that at the time. But as I matured as an OT, I realized that the principles of occupational therapy being able to understand occupation, what's relevant to the client, being able to understand the relevance of context and being on a very understanding of of adaptation, how you can, a person can adapt to to be able to engage successfully in whatever activity they're wanting to engage in those are most relevant. You can apply those concepts in every different setting, and so that's what makes us occupational therapists, not whether we work with pediatrics or with geriatrics, or if we specialize and work with with just trigger finger in in a hand clinic. We're occupational therapists and we're going to approach our, our, our clients in that particular way and that's what really distinguishes us bravo, yeah, my next one now.
Speaker 1:So how do you adapt your practice to meet the needs of clients with diverse background or abilities?
Speaker 2:oh my gosh. So so that's um, well, that kind of it really came about. I mean, I I learned about back then we called it cultural competence. Now the term that I'm hearing more often is cultural humility, because just you couldn't be competent in every single different culture, right, but you can demonstrate cultural humility by being open to differences and accepting of differences and incorporate those differences into the plan of care, um, so so that's that's really really important to me, so I gain an understanding of that um, and I can only do that when I'm, when I'm gleaning information from the client and understanding what their um, what their take is, uh, on, on a particular intervention or or what's what's important to them. That's that's super really relevant to me. So, and that once again translates to into any different setting, the, they might share information that's relevant, if it's more difficult for me to get the information from the client themselves.
Speaker 2:Here's a good example, and that's why I like running into family members too, because they'll tell me my mother was a model when she was younger and or, or my um, my um, I just just happened, yeah, just recently I ran into a, the, the adult daughter of, of one of my clients, and she shared with me that her mom, she, she was a really important publisher for for a really relevant magazine, and I thought, wow, that's, that's just amazing. And so I I learned how to incorporate that into my, into intervention and into to my dialogue and and so openness, understanding, appreciation, I think those are the really key terms, and using and just being aware of that all along, there's a real important concept that we have in occupational therapy it's called therapeutic use of self, and it's a real model that is important to us, and so we use ourselves as a modality to elicit change in our clients, and so we can take on different modes to help the client go through the process of developing.
Speaker 2:Maybe they have, they maybe have not given what we're engaging them in a lot of thought, you know and the opportunities are the tools yeah, right, so so helping them go through the process of understanding their relevance is similar to the health belief model to write that how important is this to you? And so we can gauge where they are in the process and then and then use ourselves in a therapeutic way to, to, to elicit change, recognize potential and if, if if there's not, then then we recognize that too. Right. If it's not relevant to the client, then we shouldn't be really addressing it, because everything is just for the well-being of your clients. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Absolutely no. I really like that. Yeah, my last question what kind of support and resources are available for clients and families?
Speaker 2:Yes, so it really depends on the setting. So I think I mentioned that I also work in home care, so I work for a wonderful agency in Fairfield County, connecticut, and we have so all the therapists talk Right, and we have the community of practice that I, that I mentioned and that some of the clinicians are part of, and so we get like these tips and now we call them hacks I think that's the Gen Z term hacks for how to requisition or acquire resources. There is an organization that was modeled on a lending library that was in Israel and this person brought back that concept and started a lending library in Stanford, connecticut. It's called Wheel it Forward, and they expanded now to also bridgeport. And wheel it forward is a unique type of library where you don't go to get books I know we were talking about books before but you get medical equipment, so it could be walkers, wheelchairs, beds, mattresses, it could be seat cushions, anything that can be used again, and so gently used equipment. They go through this process. They have technicians there that go through and make sure that the items are usable and they clean them, they power wash them, sterilize them and then they're available for loan. So you can go to their website and find equipment and then you can let the clients know our patients, know their family members. I've even gone sometimes and picked up. If I know that they can't get there and they really need a walker, I'm going to go and get it for them. So that's a huge resource and it depends on the, the organization too.
Speaker 2:Um, now there's, I think what I'm seeing in organizations and agencies now is they're really trying to tap into a variety of different um income streams and resource streams. So there's grants, there's partnerships with communities, with community organizations, and there's a reciprocity. So here's a good example In a town in Connecticut, in Wilton, connecticut. My agency and I participate in this and in fact next week we'll be doing another one. It's a memory cafe, and so in the memory cafe, the library they have publicized, come in once a month and it'll be a time of respite where you and your loved one living with dementia can come and just be people again and just um, enjoy the moment and and forget just for for a brief time that um you're, you're living with the, the, the effects of, of, of dementia, and um that gives the, the caregivers, because they're under a tremendous amount of stress very often. That's what my dissertation was about.
Speaker 2:It's like a whisper time for the yeah but respite in the sense that you're participating, you're engaged with the person, not that okay. Well here, the caregiver goes over here and drinks a cup of coffee while there's some question right, so's, you're working together.
Speaker 2:So we had a musician in the last time, um, the time before that, we, um, we had, uh, it was a real fun activity where we actually we were getting to know each other. So share your story, and so people were able to share different aspects of what's important to them or what was important.
Speaker 1:As a caretaker, while you're providing for that person, but you also have that opportunity to socialize.
Speaker 2:Right right, and so we have treats and we have beverages, and so right now, water is really important too, and it's been really well received, and I was on a call on Wednesday where some other agencies they shared that they're also doing memory cafes in different parts of the state, and so it's a really, really, it's a really good model.
Speaker 1:And being in an environment like that where you can socialize, have some treats and things like that, that can really alleviate stress and anxiety, you know, and for both patients and caretakers. So that's very important.
Speaker 2:So making that connection with the resources is important. Also, just knowing your environment, knowing the people that you're working with, and this is so important too Understanding the skill set and the specialties of your colleagues and staff that's so important to understanding the skill set of and the specialties of of your your colleagues and staff. That's so important. It's almost like asset based community development, where you you understand the skill set and the assets that you have within, within the community that you have, and you leverage those Right. So and it only comes about you, you gain understanding just from discussion of, of being able to have that opportunity to sit down with your colleagues and not for a minute, not talk about patients, but talk about what your interests are, what, what's what's important to you? Um, maybe, maybe it's that you want to to learn more about some some, some um important parkinson's intervention, but you've not had the time. And now, suddenly you know that another colleague is interested in that too.
Speaker 2:I found out that um because she was very much into to driving simulation. She has that huge, beautiful driving simulator at sacred heart. Well, um, there is a clinician um at my agency that um loves driving simulation, and so I'm connecting the two and so that's, that's huge too. You know, just the sharing of resources and and and making aware that comes about just with collaboration and communication, and this podcast, too it's. It's part of that, too, right, it's part of that sharing, sharing, sharing knowledge, you know, educate people.
Speaker 1:It's a big network, you know. Yeah, believe it or not, so what you just explained to everybody, myself included, so it's something that many of us didn't know prior. Yeah, maybe for some people, ot was not a real profession, like many many, many years ago, where social work was not considered as a profession. Right, yeah, so it really took a long time for the profession to become a profession and for people to embrace it. Now, you know, so it's like it's. It's still growing, but there is not a place. You know you cannot find a social worker. You know the hospital, the school, they call the prison jail. So you name it.
Speaker 1:So we did yeah so and that's the beauty of the profession and I love though I do have two different professions, but I love to carry the social worker title because it's like you invest, you know, you deal, you know so and and I think that's really basically our reward, you know, as being OT, social worker or what have you. So it's like when you see whatever that you did, you know kind of like increase the quality of health or the well-being of your clients. That's what. That's my reward personally.
Speaker 2:I know that's my word, because if it was for money, those fields don't really have money no, and and I tell my, my, my students, that too, said you're going to be comfortable right and so you chose a good profession. But but I know what you really, because we'll, we'll do introductions. Why did you become an ot? That's like a classic question, right, and so I hear a lot. I want to help people. Yeah, very seldom do I hear someone and it hasn't been for a while, because I think they're getting it now and we're doing a good job of educating the, the students.
Speaker 2:But I used to hear sometimes oh, I'm in it for the money. You have to get into OT because you have a passion and you have to understand the philosophy and that unique angle that we have, because it's not just a profession. Being an occupational therapist is a lifestyle. You really live and breathe occupation and adaptation, and that becomes evident in our relationships, in the way that we raise our our relationships, in the way that we raise our children, in the way that we interact with other people with other people yes, indeed, and it's so important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, indeed, yeah. So before we close off, so what's your last thought?
Speaker 2:my last thought is I'm so appreciative to to be able to to occupational therapy, so thank you very much for this. And if someone watching the podcast is interested in occupational therapy, as if you're a prospective student, reach out to the American Occupational Therapy Association. Reach out to one of the local schools. If you type in, if you go to ACOTE, just Google them and look them up, it's our accreditation organization. They can show you where all of the different accredited schools are across the country and even outside the country, and you can then choose one of the schools and go for an interview, learn more about occupational therapy and become one of us.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I believe we have a great quote too. I don't know if you you know, so I would love to you know, to leave everybody with that quote, because it really stands out for everything that you just mentioned. Yeah, so there were three options and I'm going to just go through. Will it stand out for everything that?
Speaker 2:you just mentioned. Yeah, so there were three options and I'm going to just go through by the process of elimination, if we have the time.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's do that.
Speaker 2:So here's the first one, which we didn't choose. Occupational therapy is not just about fixing a problem. It's about empowering individuals to live the life they want, and so I think that's just a very narrow definition, and and and empowerment certainly, but we don't just work with the individual that has the problem, which I have, a.
Speaker 2:I have an issue with the term problem too, because I wouldn't call it a problem, I would call it, maybe, a difficult situation or or a challenge challenge, um, but I in in so many of the conditions that that that that I've I've worked with the family is is a huge part of it too, and so it's not just the individual individuals that are living with the condition, but but it's those that are affected too, so that and it doesn't take into account a lot of the context.
Speaker 1:You cannot provide a holistic kind of type of services to your patients.
Speaker 2:Yeah and so and like there's no context here. So it's to live the life that they want, so all right, so we scratched that one. The other one was occupation is a fundamental aspect of human existence, and occupational therapy is about enabling individuals to engage in occupations that promote health, well-being and life satisfaction.
Speaker 1:That's my favorite.
Speaker 2:So I like it, except that there's nowhere where we really explain what occupation is. Occupation is a construct unto itself, and so it has to be understood, and it took us a hundred years, and we're still evolving. What occupation is? In the beginning, and I think I said the origins of occupational therapy, occupation became it was engaging someone in something that was busy work that would keep them busy, essentially. And hey, this worked. There were some good observations. Occupation then became less favorable.
Speaker 2:It wasn't talked about as we were adopting the losing touch with occupational therapy and we were occupational therapists in name only In the 80s. We then started to relook what occupation is and we developed a more deeper understanding of what occupation is and what adaptation is, and so some of our really best models and theories evolved out of that, like the model of human occupation, and it talks about an open system that there's input and output and that whole component of that processing of the information to then have that drive and recognizing your skill set and what you still need to do and how you recognize yourself in your role as a person performing the occupation. That all evolved out of that new understanding and so now over the past 25, 30 years, we've really been refining that and and so that's not captured here and and so it deserves really a lecture all all to its own. It's a what. What's?
Speaker 2:What I love the most and, if you think about it, so this is this was my uh quote of choice the goal of occupational therapy is to help individuals participate in the activities that give their life meaning and purpose. That considers the person's context. It puts the client first. It's very clear in that statement. That's most important to us, so I don't go in and impose okay, well, you're at this level. This is what you need to be doing now, as we should not right, so it it takes.
Speaker 2:Okay. What do you, given they understand the steps? Where do you want to be and and where do you um? How do you progress the best? What works best for you?
Speaker 1:Like they say, in social work we meet clients where they're at.
Speaker 2:Right, right, exactly, yeah, and so that's why I like this one. The goal of occupational therapy is to help individuals participate in the activities that give their life meaning and purpose.
Speaker 1:That was the second one or the third one.
Speaker 2:That's the second one, okay, okay. So, dr Schlegel, life meaning and purpose.
Speaker 1:That was the second one or the third one? That's the second one. Okay, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So Dr Schlegel, schlegel yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't have enough words to thank you. You know to commute from another state to come to New York to offer this knowledge to myself and my viewers, you know. So it's priceless and I thank you so much. I remember the last time your wife, sheila Schlegel, was here, and after we recorded our session and she stated oh, my husband have to be on the show too. Sheila basically booked you and I was so happy that Dr Sheila Schlegel did so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, thank you it was amazing to have you today. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. That's one of the pleasures of being married to another occupational therapist. We have the most wonderful conversations and we think alike. That's wonderful, and we include the other, so we're partners in crime. So, thank you.
Speaker 1:So you know, today may be your first time time, but it should not be your last. Oh, I'd love to come back okay, so of that said, it was with you, dr bitches, and dr schlegel with your war.